Monday, June 18, 2018

Chill Out This Summer with Homemade Treats

Up until the past two days, our summer has been pretty chilly. With this heat wave upon us, I have been filling my freezer with homemade goodies for the kids. When you need to chill out this summer, you can whip up some of these super easy, and fast homemade treats.

Chill Out This Summer

My boy and his friends love our homemade popsicles. I'm always trying to mix it up, and give them something not only yummy, but somewhat healthy too. I make juice bars, fruit bars, sherbet pops, and pudding pops.

If you were born in the eighties chances are, you remember the creamy goodness of pudding pops. However, they aren't readily available in all grocery stores anymore. So how do we share them with our kids? Easy. We make them! And it's so easy, that your kids can even make them too! Better yet, all you really need are popsicle molds, and pudding.

Let's Make Some Pudding Pops

I've been making these for some time now. I started out making them with instant pudding, but then when I was out, I used Snack Packs. They were so much better, so now that's all I use. Liam likes his in a "twist" like soft ice cream, so that's what I will be showing you today.

Just grab your popsicle molds, and open up some Snack Packs. This mold took four of them. Two Vanilla and two Chocolate. All I did was take turns layering each flavor into the mold. I use a butter knife because it gets more into the mold, and less on the outside of it.

Once your molds look full, tap them on the counter. This ensures the pudding packs in, and helps rid the pops of air bubbles. Now if you need too, top of the mold with pudding. I fill mine just about to the top, so that they grab the sticks completely.

Pop on all the lids, and place them in the freezer. Wait a few hours, and voila! Pudding pops!

So Many Ways to Keep Cool

Another yummy popsicle to make is with fruit yogurt. My personal favorite is strawberry banana yogurt, with tiny chunks of fresh berries. To make ice cream or sherbet pops, just set it on the counter to soften a bit. Then fill your molds, and refreeze.

Fruit juice makes for yummy ice pops too. Liam happens to love cran grape pops, or berry punch. One of my favorite is made from just strawberries. I blend up fresh strawberries, and add a teaspoon of sugar. Then I fill my molds with that mixture. They are so tasty!